OKRs and SMART goals are both useful. Neither is universally better. The debate about which to use often obscures the more important question: what does your team actually need right now: direction and ambition, or clarity and accountability? The answer shapes which framework will serve you well and which will create frustration.
Choosing a framework is not about which is more sophisticated. It is about which creates the right relationship between your team and their goals, and which you can actually implement consistently.
What each framework does
Both OKRs and SMART goals exist to translate intention into something measurable. Without either, goals tend to be vague aspirations like “be more strategic” or “improve team morale” that nobody can act on and nobody can honestly assess. Both frameworks force specificity, which is their shared value.
Where they diverge is in philosophy. OKRs are aspirational and directional, pushing you towards what could be. SMART goals are grounded and realistic, helping you commit to what will be. Understanding that distinction is the key to choosing between them.
OKRs explained
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. The Objective is a qualitative, ambitious statement of direction: where you want to go. The Key Results are the measurable outcomes that tell you whether you are getting there. Typically set quarterly, OKRs are designed to be stretching. The standard guidance from Google, where the framework became widely known, is that consistently hitting 70% of your Key Results means you are pitching them at the right level. Hitting 100% suggests you were not being ambitious enough.
This is counterintuitive. Most goal-setting frameworks treat 100% completion as success. OKRs deliberately flip this: if you always achieve everything, your goals are too comfortable. The framework is designed to push teams towards their ceiling rather than to their comfort zone.
OKRs work best when set collaboratively. Individuals contribute their own Key Results within the direction set by the Objective. This gives the framework an element of bottom-up ownership that purely top-down goal-setting lacks. They also work best when reviewed regularly: check-ins mid-quarter to assess progress and remove blockers are as important as the OKRs themselves.
SMART goals explained
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. A SMART goal defines exactly what is to be achieved, how success will be measured, why it is realistic given current resources and constraints, why it matters, and when it will be done. Unlike OKRs, SMART goals are designed to be achievable. Hitting 100% is the expected outcome, not a sign of insufficient ambition.
This makes SMART goals well-suited to situations where reliability matters more than stretch. Individual development goals like “complete the Python course by the end of Q2 and apply it to the reporting workflow” are classic SMART goal territory. The person knows what they are committing to, the manager knows what to expect, and both can have a clear conversation about whether it happened.
The risk with SMART goals is sandbagging: setting achievable goals rather than ambitious ones, because the framework implicitly rewards certainty. Teams that set SMART goals exclusively can end up executing well but not pushing themselves. The best goal-setters know when SMART is appropriate and when it is holding them back.
When to use which
Neither framework is universal. The choice depends on what you are trying to achieve and the context your team is operating in.
- Team sizeOKRs scale better for larger teams where shared direction matters more than individual task tracking. SMART goals work well at the individual level regardless of team size, because they are inherently personal commitments.
- Ambition levelIf you want to push for significant change, such as entering a new market, dramatically improving a metric, or shifting how a team operates, OKRs create the right kind of pressure. If you want reliable execution of known improvements, SMART goals are more appropriate.
- TimeframeOKRs are typically quarterly. SMART goals can span any timeframe but tend to work best for objectives achievable within one to three months. For longer-horizon goals, both frameworks benefit from interim milestones.
- Tracking frequencyOKRs are designed for frequent check-ins, with weekly or fortnightly progress reviews being common. SMART goals are often set and reviewed at longer intervals, though more frequent check-ins improve outcomes with both.
- Failure cultureOKRs require a culture where missing 30% of your goals is acceptable and expected. If your team treats any shortfall as failure, OKRs will be gamed, and people will set safe goals and hit them. SMART goals are a safer fit for teams where accountability culture is still developing.
In practice: using both
Many effective teams do not choose between OKRs and SMART goals. They use both, for different purposes. The pattern that works well for most teams is to use OKRs at the team level to set shared direction and create ambition, and SMART goals at the individual level to support personal development and define specific commitments.
In practice, this looks like: the team sets three OKRs for the quarter, each with two or three Key Results that will be tracked together. Each individual also has one or two personal development targets, framed as SMART goals, that relate to their role, their growth, or a specific skill they are building. The team-level OKRs provide direction and energy; the individual SMART goals provide accountability and personal ownership.
In Manager Toolkit, the Targets feature is built to support exactly this kind of layered approach. You can track individual development targets per person, reviewing them in 1-1s, noting progress, and connecting them to the broader direction the team is working towards. The format is flexible enough to capture both OKR-style ambitious outcomes and SMART-style specific commitments, and everything stays connected to the person it belongs to. Review targets in your regular catchups to keep them front of mind and adjust when circumstances change.
Track targets your way
Set SMART goals or OKR-style targets per team member and track progress over time.